“Percy.” I hissed, chasing after him. “You blew our cover.”
“The plan fell apart a while ago, lest you didn’t notice.”
Gritting my teeth, I tried not to look at the corpse pinned to the wall. The scarlet greatsword lost its shape, dropping the broken knight to the floor in a heap.
“Who is that?” I asked.
“I have a guess,” Percy called over his shoulder. “Later.”
The alarm bells surged in intensity as we dashed down the stairs and fled toward the eastern exit we’d been directed to leave through. A knight sprinted toward us, yanking off his helm to reveal sage-green eyes and soft brown hair.
“This way.” Eleos panted, turning around the moment he saw us.
We burst into the courtyard but found no carriage awaiting us. Guards stationed on the walls turned in our direction, leveling bows at our heads.
Eleos tackled me, throwing us behind a pillar. I heard several arrows crash into the stone and slam into the ground.
“Why are they shooting at us?” I hissed.
“You’ll see.” Eleos breathed, eyes darting around.
Percy took cover behind the next pillar, hands held over his head, flinching with every impact.
“Go.” Eleos pushed me, and I obeyed.
Running as fast as my skirt would allow, I stared ahead to avoid looking toward certain death. Flinching as an arrowwhizzed past my ear, I looked up to see a carriage riddled with arrows waiting for us, Seraphim sitting in the driver’s seat, frantically waving for us to board.
Eleos threw me in first before diving after me. Percy joined Seraphim at the front, flailing panickedly to climb onto the seat. A whip cracked, and the carriage rolled forward.
I stumbled into a man already sitting in the back. The man who’d held me at knife point.
I froze, eyes widening. He returned my shock with a sly grin.
“What—” I managed before the carriage violently rocked.
Seraphim whipped the horses into a frenzy, driving them into a gallop. Through the windows, I saw a stream of men burst through the doors, and more arriving from ahead, blocking our path.
A javelin thudded into the door, the metal point mere inches from my face. Gasping, I scrambled back, slamming into Eleos. He grabbed me, and craned his neck toward the driver’s seat window.
“Seraphim!” He shouted.
I saw her arm extend, blood coating her gauntlet. Heat crackled through the air as fire erupted from her grasp. Two wings of flame tore ahead of us, cleaving through the guards blocking our path.
Our carriage screamed through fire. Hot flames crawled up the wheels and licked at the horses’ hooves. Soldiers leaped out of the way of the spreading flames and careening carriage as it tore through the courtyard.
The carriage nearly tipped as the horses sprinted through the gates and turned down a sharp bend in the road before fleeing into the surrounding woodlands.
I lost balance and fell face-first to the carriage floor, covering my head as I waited for the violent rocking to finally stop. Gasping, I raised my head, noticing first the murderer we’d come here to save, then Seraphim peering through the carriage window to grin at us.
“I think that went well!”
9
Chapter 9
Ididn’t like our new recruit. Maybe it was his lackadaisical attitude, or more likely, the knife he’d pressed to my throat.
Seraphim had led us far off the road, deep into thick woods dotted with white birch trees. Stalled in mud and unable to squeeze through the tightly packed trunks, we were forced to abandon the escape carriage. Leaving the wreck behind to delay our pursuers, we extracted our supplies and unhooked the horses.
